Update: Man escapes injury in Smilax Road train accident

Driver abandoned pickup truck on tracks

Driver abandoned pickup truck on tracks

August 04, 2007|SBT247News and Tribune Staff Reports

The driver of a pickup truck escaped injury Saturday afternoon when he abandoned his vehicle on Smilax Road near New Carlisle just before a train hit it. Emergency crews were called to the scene of the accident on Smilax Road at the railroad tracks west of Tulip Road and south of U.S. 20 in New Carlisle, county dispatchers reported. First responders told dispatchers that the car, which is wedged beneath the engine of the train, was engulfed in flames, but the driver was not inside the vehicle. South Bend Tribune photojournalist Gene Kaiser said the truck got stuck on the tracks after the driver's brakes failed, and he abandoned the vehicle as an eastbound freight train approached. The driver was not identified. The flames damaged the train, leaving it temporarily disabled.